TRUMP MAY BUILD A TOWER IN MOSCOW

Developer and casino operator Donald Trump is expected to hold a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday to outline plans to build an office and apartment complex in the Russian city styled after his Trump Tower property in New York's midtown Manhattan.

Trump is scheduled to conduct the conference with Miami-based Brooke Group Ltd., a tobacco company controlled by corporate raider Bennett LeBow, said Howard Lerber, president of Brooke's New Valley unit.

"We are looking at a few sites now on which to build a residential-and-office-style complex in a joint venture with Trump," said Lerber.

Brooke has recently built an office building in Moscow and the company owns a few sites that could used for a new development, Lerber said.

Trump officials could not be reached for comment. Trump's office said the developer left Monday for Moscow.

With foreign companies rushing to set up satellite offices in Moscow to capitalize on its fast-growing but volatile economy, the city's real estate market has taken off.

At an average of $93.87 a square foot, Moscow office space rents for more than three times the $27.75-a-square foot average for Manhattan, according to Colliers International, a network of real estate brokers worldwide.

Even the lowliest Moscow offices command rents of $45 to $70 a square foot, according to Colliers.

After years of focusing on his casino and hotel operations through his Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, the developer has started to test the waters for new developments.

This summer, when the New York Stock Exchange said it was exploring the possibility of moving, Trump said he would build the world's tallest building at the southern tip of Manhattan to house the Big Board. Trump and partners Galbreath Co. and GE Capital Corp. joined forces and are in the process of turning the old Gulf & Western building at New York's Columbus Circle into an upscale condominium complex.